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For me, MOOC were initially a bet that the way we work, would shift from the classical way where you are employed for years at the same place, to a gig economy.
by JPLeRouzic 9y ago
For me, MOOC were initially a bet that the way we work, would shift from the classical way where you are employed for years at the same place, to a gig economy.
The reasoning goes like that: If you spend only a short time with employers, then you do no need to waste long time in universities. On contrary you could take a quick course on the needed subject and would prove your fitness to a job by other means (Github/Hackaday/...)
Unfortunately all classical long term jobs will not disappear overnight, companies are social constructs because they have customers that are human, they need people they can trust.
In addition, the gig economy had frightened many so many people, that they thought that having a university degree is the best way to escape it. So much for the MOOCs.
I think that as usual (and as Paul Graham said in 2012) universities will be challenged by new comers, but for me it will not be MOOCs. Universities are becoming more and more commodities (as reported in another HN discussion which says that the average IQ of the increasing masses going to university, is diminishing simply as the result of the IQ distribution law). Employers will trust them less and less to select the best individuals.
This is not new, I remember during the mid 90', there was a recruiting crisis, there was not enough people mastering the C language, the answer was not to make everybody to learn it, it was to invent new languages (Java/PHP/Python) that were much less demanding and also new tooling (IDE) making it possible for less gifted but more numerous people to enter this industry.
So the next thing will not be MOOCs or more people to universities, but tooling like DARPA's AIDA [0] applied to science.
On a lesser scale, tooling like Galaxy[1] in biology, are excellent steps in the right direction.
There are many benefits for the society at large to create tools to plan, assist, track and audit the intellectual processes, the science replication crisis is a good example.
[0] https://padiracinnovation.org/2017/04/07/362/ https://padiracinnovation.org/2017/04/07/362/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_(computational_biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_(computational_biology)
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoIDEs weren't created to help the less gifted, they have always been a tool for increasing productivity.
- JPLeRouzic 9y agoI think that you are picking. Please call it a tool to be more inclusive. About the "recruitment crisis" during Internet bubble: http://archive.cra.org/reports/wits/cra.wits.html http://archive.cra.org/reports/wits/cra.wits.html
- JPLeRouzic 9y agoIt is downvoted...This is very interesting. Are there people interested in a founding a startup creating a tool that would help to plan, assist, track and audit the intellectual processes? Let say a crossbreed between Galaxy[0], Knime[1] and the usual stuff[2]? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_(computational_biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_(computational_biology) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KNIME https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KNIME [2] https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/collaborationtools.html https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/collaborationtools.h...
- dragonwriter 9y ago> This is not new, I remember during the mid 90', there was a recruiting crisis, there was not enough people mastering the C language, the answer was not to make everybody to learn it, it was to invent new languages (Java/PHP/Python) that were much less demanding and also new tooling (IDE) making it possible for less gifted but more numerous people to enter this industry. Python was invented in 1991, not in response to any crisis in the mid-1990s, none were innvented for that purpose, and IDEs were invented in the 1980s. The narrative you are weaving is creative, but doesn't really hold up to even modest scrutiny.
- JPLeRouzic 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum#Computer_Programming_for_Everybody https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum#Computer_Prog... Excerpt:"In 1999, Van Rossum submitted a funding proposal to DARPA called Computer Programming for Everybody, in which he further defined his goals for Python: an easy and intuitive language just as powerful as major competitors ... code that is as understandable as plain English"
- JPLeRouzic 9y ago> IDEs were invented in the 1980s You mean Turbo C or the Microsoft shell for their C compiler? I heavily used Turbo C in the 80", it is not at all comparable to a true IDE like VisualAge (later WAS/Eclipse). One of the first IDE is SoftBench (1989). VisualAge started to be commercialized widely in the mid 90" and WAS is a product that came in the 2000"